I've searched through the forums about E911. To date I think this information is correct. I think it would be nice to have a post consolidating all the E911 information. I want it for the locations that have and have not E911. I would think many of you would want it for the same reason. So, the first thing we need is a moderator to make it a sticky [ ? ]. Second if you don't see your state and area code posted please post it and I'll consolidate it here [ * ]. I will follow-up by consolidating alot of the E911 information here (news, etc.). I really do want to make this post work for us all so please pitching and help! If you can think of anything to help with this post, please let us know.

E911 (Active)_Rhode Island

_New York City

E911 (Testing)_Maryland__Washington D.C.

E911 (Not-Active)_Pennsylvannia__Pittsburgh 724,412

Thanks in Advance!-JC

Last edited by Sep on Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:06 am; edited 1 time in total

I thought I read a post here that said it was active or testing in the washington DC area. they already have contracts with verizon and I think some other telcos, so those service areas will probably all go live at the same time.

In other words, all Voip providers need to be able to provide the signal and/or have their customers clearly understand that it's not possible (like, for example, Skype or a Vonage SoftPhone).

Anyway, as far as I know, my home town (Topsham, Maine) supports E911 for what it's worth. At least that's what the email from Vonage implied. I don't know how far that extends from here, though. I suspect all of Maine supports it, but I have no way of knowing.

Well, it looks like Voip now has 4 years to deliver E911. Perhaps now we can get all the other enhancements (ACR anyone?) that are on 'hold' because all resources are dedicated to the November 28th deadline?

(Wednesday, November 2) The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation requiring Internet telephone companies to provide location-specific emergency 911 responses. But the panel also voted to roll back a looming FCC deadline -- while granting firms four years to implement the technology.

Voice over Internet Protocol -- Voip -- companies currently face a November deadline to provide "enhanced," or location-based, 911 response to customers. The legislation, S. 1063, would waive that deadline and require revised FCC rules within 120 days of the bill's enactment.

The bill also grants Internet telephony providers a special waiver of E-911 rules for up to four years. Under the text of the bill, the FCC "shall waive the 911 and E-911 requirements" if the Voip provider meets a three-part test.

Companies would have to warn subscribers that 911 and E-911 service is unavailable. Subscribers would have to separately acknowledge receipt of such warnings, and the companies must demonstrate "that it is not technically or operationally feasible" to comply with the FCC rules.

Many Voip providers criticized a May FCC order requiring nationwide compliance with E-911 services by Nov. 28. They called compliance technically impossible, and several firms have sued the agency.

In addition to establishing a waiver procedure and allowing waivers for four years, S. 1063 grants public safety officials immunity from lawsuits when then accept emergency calls from Voip providers. The public safety sector already has immunity when they take such calls from landline or wireless carriers.

"Public safety needs this protection," Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said in offering a revised version of S. 1063. "They are being told not to take calls from [Internet telephone companies]." The bill originally was sponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

The bill also grants Voip providers access to "selective routers," which are phone lines generally controlled by traditional telecommunications companies that feed into public safety call centers.

Neither of those provisions were included in the FCC's May order. Voip providers aggressively sought the provisions pertaining to public-safety immunity and access to selective routers.

Most of the Bells have voluntarily agreed to make routers available to Internet companies.

S. 1063 requires the modernization of the public-safety 911 system, an issue whose prominence rose in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the inability of public safety personnel to reroute emergency calls to centers not affected by flooding in the Gulf Coast.

Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., led the effort in the committee on behalf of Voip providers concerned about the FCC order.

He pushed for a permanent exemption of the FCC order for those Voip providers, such as Vonage, offering "nomadic" service. That type of service is available to customers from any broadband connection.

Nelson and Commerce ranking member Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, resisted that push and sought a one-year waiver. Sununu and Sen. George Allen, R-Va., urged a five-year time frame for E-911 compliance.

The start of the committee session was delayed for more than 30 minutes as Stevens, Inouye, Sununu, Burns and their aides huddled at the dais and argued about how long a waiver authority should be granted. Inouye and his staff favored a waiver of less than two years, and they crafted language favoring 18 months.

On the document offering the Inouye amendment, "18" was crossed off and replaced with "48" months. The revised Inouye amendment was accepted by voice vote.

Many Voip providers who criticized the initial FCC order also blasted the agency's requirement that companies disconnect customers who did not acknowledge warnings about lack of E-911 compliance.

That cutoff date was originally set for Aug. 28, but the FCC waived the rule for a month. Had the rule gone into effect as scheduled, many Gulf Coast users of Vonage and other Voip services -- including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin -- would not have had access to any telephone service in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In September, the FCC said it would not require Voip providers that reached 90 percent compliance with the warning responses to disconnect customers.

S. 1063 ultimately says all companies meeting that warning response threshold "shall be presumed to have complied" with the first two tests.

Under the bill, after companies put forward requests for special waivers, the FCC has 45 days to grant the waivers. Waivers are to be granted in one-year increments.

The only amendment subjected to a committee roll call vote was one introduced by Sununu. It narrowed the scope of the FCC's authority, barring the agency from issuing "regulations that require or impose a specific technology, product, or technological standard."

I was initially told by a Vonage Customer Service email it was end of year/ January next year. I sincerely hope this still holds true. 911 is an issue in my house (little ones running around) and I'd hate to give up the savings that I get w/Vonage.

I'm 68 years old. I haver never dialed 911. There was no such thing over half my life. Didn't even have a phone with a dial on it for a 1/4 of my life. I don't see 911 as a bad idea but from past experience it would appear I could live without it. Apparently most of you folk sleep with a cell phone under your pillow anyhow. Is it really that important that Vonage directly terminate with Joe Fireman?